Posted by William Nunnelley on 2006-05-03

Retiring President Thomas E. Corts will deliver the address at Samford University commencement Saturday, May 20. A total of 849 seniors will receive diplomas that day. Dr. Corts will speak during 10 a.m. exercises at Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Arena. He will retire May 31 after 23 years as president.

Commencement for Samford's Cumberland School of Law will be at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 20, in Wright Center on campus. Florida attorney general Charlie Crist, a 1981 Samford law graduate, will speak.

Commencement Weekend will begin Friday, May 19. The President's Reception for seniors and their families will be from 2:30 until 4 p.m. in the main dining room of Beeson University Center. Baccalaureate service will be at 5 p.m. in Wright Center Concert Hall.

The Reverend Lawrence Wofford, pastor of Greater St. Luke Zion Church in Greensboro, Ala., and founder and president of the Democracy Project in Selma, Ala., will deliver the baccalaureate sermon.

Also scheduled during Commencement weekend are the Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing pinning ceremony Friday, May 19, at 1 p.m. in Hodges Chapel; closing reception for the Samford Senior Art Show in Wright Center Art Gallery following Friday's baccalaureate service; and the Samford School of Business MBA hooding ceremony Saturday, May 20, at 8 a.m. in the Terrace Cafe of Birmingham Museum of Art.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.